For the last few months, I, as well as other staff, have noticed new members who have made "advertisements" of various stuff on Furtopia. Such advertisements have been things like fursuit making businesses to Furry Surveys, as well as other stuff.

This post I am writing is not meant to enforce more rules on members who advertise, but rather to clarify and explain more about the current rule Furtopia has concerning advertising which is the following:

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9. Individuals are not allowed to explicitly advertise or recruit on Furtopia forums and live chat (Furtopia IRC) for other forums, communities, or projects. This rule is to prevent members from using Furtopia as a “billboard” so to speak to advertise/spam items of “questionable, unknown, or suspicious” content, and/or pulling people away ( “user mining” ) to join another site. For further information about advertising, please see this thread here: http://forums.furtopia.org/index.php?topic=44795.0EXCEPTIONS:* Members are allowed to post a link to their FurAffinity, DeviantArt, Livejournal, Other blog, or other personal furry website in their signature and/or profile.* Members, after first having a minimum of 25 posts and an introduction thread in the Greetings Forum, are allowed to make threads for their own furry businesses which offer furry arts and crafts for sale or commission on the Furtopia forums.* Members can seek Staff permission to post advertising not otherwise exempted from this rule which can include, but is not limited to: Surveys, Questionaires, Sociological projects relating to furry fandom, Interviews, etc.* When members do advertise anything, please post as much information as to Who, What, Where, When, Why, and/or How something is being advertised. The more information you provide, then the less your post/thread will look "questionable, unknown, or suspicious".

Why do we have this rule? It can be explained in the following:

While we do understand that people throughout the furry fandom want to get their names and furry arts noticed more, We'd appreciate it if new members who come to Furtopia did not simply make a post describing and advertising their wares/business, then leave, and then never be seen or heard from again. Furtopia is not a "billboard" so to speak where you can just drop off a "Post It" note and then walk away.

It would be appreciated if new members took the time out to actually become a member here by getting to know others, making a Greeting introduction thread, posting in forum discussions, etc. Otherwise, if you're just here to advertise and nothing else, then that may make you look suspicious about who you are and what your intentions are. It would be nice if we got to know new members a bit more. Don't be shy, and feel free to say Hello.

As stated in the rule, A member can post links to various sites in their signature and/or profile. Items such as:* Your FurAffinity account* Your Deviant Art account* Your Livejournal, Facebook, Myspace, or other blog site.* Other personal furry website.If there is anything else you want to post in your signature, then please let the staff know and we can answer any questions you may have.